The CONTACT Photography Festival celebrates the 30th edition of its annual citywide event spanning the month of May 2026. The Toronto-based festival is dedicated to exhibiting, analyzing, and celebrating photography and lens-based media. CONTACT provides numerous opportunities to experience a diverse range of exhibitions in neighbourhoods across greater Toronto, and to take in hundreds of events, including openings, lectures, artist talks, book reviews, workshops, and more, forging creative connections and sparking engagements.
The 2026 Festival features curated exhibitions and public art installations highlighting projects by Canadian and international artists and photographers, developed both independently and in partnership with numerous local and international arts and cultural organizations. In 2026, lens-based and mixed-media works examine subjects including decolonial practices, community-building, migration, looking backwards and looking forward, activism, mourning and loss, personal and collective memory, politics and poetics, and feature explorations in new media as well as a return to early photographic practices and experimentation.
